music production setup.

psychosismoses

im looking to buil small home studio, have my monitors picked. my pc has usb ports and not firewire, im thinking of getting this audio interface http://www.thomann.de/ie/behringer_xenyx_x2442_usb.htm as its usb connection...my fist question is can i use it for production with ableton live or reason?? will i need to buy a seperate soundcard for ins/outs... i was looking to produce electronica mostly but would also want to record instruments/vocals and have the option to use outboard equipment with it synths,effects (although this desk has built in effects) etc down the road... and to perform live with it. any information would be greatly appreciated.

Neurojazz

psychosismoses wrote: »

im looking to buil small home studio, have my monitors picked. my pc has usb ports and not firewire, im thinking of getting this audio interface http://www.thomann.de/ie/behringer_xenyx_x2442_usb.htm as its usb connection...my fist question is can i use it for production with ableton live or reason?? will i need to buy a seperate soundcard for ins/outs... i was looking to produce electronica mostly but would also want to record instruments/vocals and have the option to use outboard equipment with it synths,effects (although this desk has built in effects) etc down the road... and to perform live with it. any information would be greatly appreciated.

Behringer isn't known for being robust - if taking this live i would be *very* gentle. It would probably work fine - and if looking at live recording i would probably avoid reason and lean towards ableton - it's so easy to record and edit it's scary.

If going live you'd find other daws a bit tricky - reason is very solid on a laptop also, but you'll find it limiting after a while if doing music full time.

Lots of pros and cons... lots of opinions!

I'd get a big pc (full tower) for home for bang for buck and cheap macbook pro for live - install ableton on both and pass projects around with dropbox.

The desk is a tricky one - the more cash you have the better quality - maybe start with this and aim to move onto something bigger or like the UAD apollo so you can mix in the box....

psychosismoses

Neurojazz wrote: »

Behringer isn't known for being robust - if taking this live i would be *very* gentle. It would probably work fine - and if looking at live recording i would probably avoid reason and lean towards ableton - it's so easy to record and edit it's scary.

If going live you'd find other daws a bit tricky - reason is very solid on a laptop also, but you'll find it limiting after a while if doing music full time.

Lots of pros and cons... lots of opinions!

I'd get a big pc (full tower) for home for bang for buck and cheap macbook pro for live - install ableton on both and pass projects around with dropbox.

The desk is a tricky one - the more cash you have the better quality - maybe start with this and aim to move onto something bigger or like the UAD apollo so you can mix in the box....

Thanks, yea I seen a vid on the desk, it does what it says on the tin but very cheaply made...yea I plan on using ableton more so, I always feel limited with reason in some ways but I love the synchs on it..
I think Il stay with my laptop n just upgrade the ram n processor...n build my own desktop down the road...was looking at Soundcards by focusrite but there Connection is firewire, laptop only USB, should I get external firewire, the transition to a Mac would annoy Me, I hated them at college

TroutMask

Since you're going for a desk, why not get a desk with the audio interface built-in? Seems like it would cut down on clutter/cabling and give similar results.
Here's an idea
http://www.thomann.de/ie/search.html?gk=stma&bn=&pr=&kf=on&oa=pra&wgfid1=13056&wgfid2=12968&wgfid3=13057&wgfid4=12969&wgfid5=12970&wgfid6=12971&wgfid7=12972&wgf12972=USB

Also, maybe visit a couple of the Irish retailers as they may equal or beat these prices. They can be good for ideas too. Think pro-audio suppliers over street shops.

psychosismoses

TroutMask wrote: »

Since you're going for a desk, why not get a desk with the audio interface built-in? Seems like it would cut down on clutter/cabling and give similar results.
Here's an idea
http://www.thomann.de/ie/search.html?gk=stma&bn=&pr=&kf=on&oa=pra&wgfid1=13056&wgfid2=12968&wgfid3=13057&wgfid4=12969&wgfid5=12970&wgfid6=12971&wgfid7=12972&wgf12972=USB

Also, maybe visit a couple of the Irish retailers as they may equal or beat these prices. They can be good for ideas too. Think pro-audio suppliers over street shops.

Yea was looking at a couple of Yamaha desks, I don't want to use USB connection cause of latency issues...I suppose I could just Mic up stuff to a focusrite interface I had my eye on...but have no firewire connection on laptop, building a new computer gonna have to wait,.

TroutMask

There's USB & there's USB - I've gotten some of the lowest latencies (2 mS) with USBs - never got that low with FW. Besides, if you have a desk (either hardware or DSP/virtual based), then the latency thing is not such an issue. Basically because you can do your 'cue mixes' to your headphones. By this I mean you'll be taking your pre-recorded tracks and your tracking channel (vocal, instrument...) and sending them through the mixer. By doing this, you avoid any off-putting latencies, because the tracking channel is not making that latency-inducing round-trip through the software. Some audio interfaces come with a software cue mixer that is DSP based, and this is used in the same way, pretty much. MOTU & Prism come with this - i'm sure others do too.

psychosismoses

TroutMask wrote: »

There's USB & there's USB - I've gotten some of the lowest latencies (2 mS) with USBs - never got that low with FW. Besides, if you have a desk (either hardware or DSP/virtual based), then the latency thing is not such an issue. Basically because you can do your 'cue mixes' to your headphones. By this I mean you'll be taking your pre-recorded tracks and your tracking channel (vocal, instrument...) and sending them through the mixer. By doing this, you avoid any off-putting latencies, because the tracking channel is not making that latency-inducing round-trip through the software. Some audio interfaces come with a software cue mixer that is DSP based, and this is used in the same way, pretty much. MOTU & Prism come with this - i'm sure others do too.

thanks for that. Im wanting to do mostly electronic/experimental stuff on the daw...and maby have the option of recording guitar and vocal into ableton,...and maby route everything back to the desk for mixing and maby live performance...want to have option of anologue and digital, as i will be building along the way with maby synths and outboard effects...do i need a ADDA convertor for that set up??

TroutMask

Interested in a Tascam DM-3200? :pac: Seriously, a digital desk sounds like the one for that kind of flexibility. You won't need a separate ADC and DAC if you're looking at the desks we were viewing. That's the advantage for you - you get your DAC-age and your analogue mixer combined. No external audio interface needed.

For mixing on the desk, hmmm - you could do it in the analogue domain, but at your price point there's not really any advantage to doing that. What you might consider is a desk that acts as a DAW controller as well. Or do what we did: a fader surface for DAW control, and a fancy interface for conversion and cue mixing capability. Needs a bit of setting up, but once done - it's easy to use. TBH, i'd go for the all-in-one desk option for your needs - time for you to take a trip to the showroom.

psychosismoses

TroutMask wrote: »

Interested in a Tascam DM-3200? :pac: Seriously, a digital desk sounds like the one for that kind of flexibility. You won't need a separate ADC and DAC if you're looking at the desks we were viewing. That's the advantage for you - you get your DAC-age and your analogue mixer combined. No external audio interface needed.

For mixing on the desk, hmmm - you could do it in the analogue domain, but at your price point there's not really any advantage to doing that. What you might consider is a desk that acts as a DAW controller as well. Or do what we did: a fader surface for DAW control, and a fancy interface for conversion and cue mixing capability. Needs a bit of setting up, but once done - it's easy to use. TBH, i'd go for the all-in-one desk option for your needs - time for you to take a trip to the showroom.

was thinking a digital desk/controller myself, so is there any issue of having outboard effects/synths connecting up to it?? i know how to map the controls and faders and all that,,,it would be handy for saving automation when they are mixed...my mate has the mackie, any suggestions on a good one for 300-400 catogory??

TroutMask

psychosismoses wrote: »

was thinking a digital desk/controller myself, so is there any issue of having outboard effects/synths connecting up to it?? i know how to map the controls and faders and all that,,,it would be handy for saving automation when they are mixed...my mate has the mackie, any suggestions on a good one for 300-400 catogory??

If you like mapping controllers then a DAW-controller mixer interface is probably your man. So long as you have enough IO then sending to and returning from outboard FX is no problem. Use balanced cabling to keep the noise down.